CHARNWOOD MOLECULAR - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board and Senior Management Team
- Head of People in March 2020.Charlotte Brings to the Company
Charlotte joined Charnwood Molecular as Head of People in March 2020.Charlotte brings to the Company extensive HR experience from her previous role as a HR Director in an employee engagement Company, in which she supported the company since its inception through the creation and implementation of HR policies, rapid recruitment and in supporting key stakeholders with employee engagement incentives to build a people centric culture.
Qualifications.
Prior to this, Charlotte worked in a HR capacity for Companies such as STERIS, British Red Cross and Nottingham Trent University. Along with her HR experience, she also has a degree in Business and Enterprise Management and is CIPD qualified.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board
- Member of the Board and Senior Management Team
Dr. Ben Cons has more than 30 years' experience in pharmaceutical R&D and commercialization in the biotech, pharmaceutical and financing sectors. He is a prominent leader in global healthcare and technology, and has 20 years of experience with the NYSE-listed pharmaceutical services company IQVIA where he was SVP for corporate development and its associated investment fund NovaQuest. Currently, Dr. Cons is a Special Partner at the private equity fund Vitruvian, Chairman of Charnwood Molecular and Chairman of Castor EDC. In addition Dr. Cons is a NED of Talking Medicines, Fluidic Analytics and Board Advisor to Azadyne.
Qualifications.
Dr. Cons has a PhD in molecular pharmacology from Southampton University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Managing Director, Questae Coaching & Consulting Ltd
Chris Williams is an in vitro pharmacologist with over 20 years of leadership experience in large and mid-sized pharma (Pfizer, UCB & Ipsen) supporting small and large molecule therapeutics discovery. She has held senior positions such as Director High Throughput Screening (Pfizer) and VP R&D Chief of staff (Ipsen), having project, portfolio and change management accountabilities at a global level across a variety of research and development functions. In 2017, she established her own consulting business and supports start-ups, Biotech, Pharma, charitable and not-for-profit organisations in the healthcare sector at a strategic, technical and cultural level.
Qualifications.
Chris holds a PhD from the University of Kent at Canterbury, is a certified MBTI coach and sits on a number of Boards (including ELRIG, BPS and BPSAssessment Ltd).
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Independent Consultant
- Investor
- Member of the Advisory Board
Dr. Claire Madden-Smith is an advisor and investor in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector. For over 20 years her career focused on the contract services environment, predominantly in pharmaceutical development. In 2018 Juniper Pharmaceuticals was sold to Catalent Inc. for $140m, enabling Claire to fully exit the organisation in 2019.
Qualifications.
Claire was an executive director of Molecular Profiles and post-sale in 2013 was Senior Vice-President at Juniper Pharmaceuticals, leading Juniper Pharma Services, a division of the organisation. Claire has a degree and PhD in chemistry from Loughborough University.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Chemical Development Consultant
Dave has held roles as Director of Process Chemistry at AstraZeneca (Charnwood), and Vice President of Chemical Development at AMRI. He has been an independent process chemistry consultant since 2014.
Qualifications.
Dave has over 25 years of industrial experience in the fine chemicals, agrochemicals, and pharmaceutical fields. Over the last 20 years he has worked in the pharmaceutical arena where he worked for SmithklineBeecham and AstraZeneca, where he was Director of Process Chemistry. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a visiting Professor at Bristol University. In 2012 he was Chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Heterocyclic Compounds.
Job Titles:
- Senior Director of Biology
Job Titles:
- Member of the Scientific Leadership Team
- Senior Director of Medicinal Chemistry
James joined Charnwood Molecular in December 2016 as Head of Medicinal Chemistry.
Qualifications.
James graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in Chemistry, and holds a PhD from the University of Liverpool. He brings extensive experience from across multiple therapeutic areas in drug discovery, having previously held positions at SAFC Pharma, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, KemFine Oy and CRUK.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Scientific Leadership Team
- Director of Process Research & Development
After graduating with an MChem from UMIST (now the University of Manchester) in 2001, James began his career as a bench chemist within the Discovery Research Division at GlaxoSmithKline. He made several important contributions in declaring tractable lead series for high-profile kinase targets.
Job Titles:
- Chief Commercial Officer
- Member of the Board and Senior Management Team
Mark joined Charnwood Molecular as Chief Commercial Officer in June 2021. He has extensive experience growing discovery and development service businesses.
Mark has held a number of board roles before joining Charnwood, most recently as CCO of Arcinova, prior to its acquisition by Quotient Sciences. At Arcinova, Mark and his team significantly expanded the customer base and more than quadrupled sales over a 5-year period. Previous roles include CEO of Physiomics PLC, an AIM-listed oncology in silico modelling company and VP of business development at Excelsyn, prior to its acquisition by AMRI. Earlier in his career, Mark also spent several years in senior roles at BioFocus, a discovery services and drug development business, prior to its acquisition by Galapagos NV.
Qualifications.
Mark holds an MBA with distinction from Imperial College London, a PhD in Molecular Biology from Newcastle University and a 1st class honours degree in Genetics from The University of Nottingham.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Scientific Leadership Team
- Operations Director
Mike joined Charnwood Molecular at its inception in 1998 as a Research Chemist, becoming Head of Chemistry in August 1999 and Director of Operations in June 2011.
Qualifications.
Mike holds a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of Liverpool, and prior to joining Charnwood Molecular, he carried out postdoctoral research at Liverpool in the field of enzymatic/whole cell asymmetric transformations, and also in the area of bone disease therapeutics.
Job Titles:
- Independent Consultant
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Chemistry Consultant
Paul Leeson is a medicinal chemistry consultant with >35 years' experience in major pharmaceutical companies: Smith Kline and French, Merck Sharp and Dohme, Wyeth (USA), AstraZeneca, and GlaxoSmithKline. Since 2014 he has advised pharmaceutical companies, start-ups, and academia. At AstraZeneca (1997-2011) Paul was Head of Medicinal Chemistry at the Charnwood site and led AstraZeneca's Global Chemistry Forum, holding accountability for the company's chemistry strategy.
Qualifications.
Paul has a PhD from the University of Cambridge and holds an honorary professorship at the University of Nottingham.
Job Titles:
- Independent Consultant
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Independent Scientific Advisor
- Visiting Professor at UCL Ear Institute
Since 2018 Dr. Rick Cousins has been an independent scientific advisor in drug discovery and medicinal chemistry for small molecule, peptide and oligonucleotide projects. Rick has worked with large pharma, private equity investors, venture capital and early-stage life-science biotech companies providing advice and supporting drug discovery activities. Before becoming an independent consultant, Rick was a Senior Scientific Director in drug discovery at GSK, in a new science incubator group, as well as the Protein Degradation Discovery Performance Unit and was the internal GSK lead for hearing-loss drug discovery.
Qualifications.
Rick is a visiting professor at UCL Ear Institute, supporting their translational science activities. Rick is a member of the SAB for the EPSRC Prosperity Grant ‘A healthier nation' alliance with GSK, and the universities of Nottingham and Strathclyde. Rick was also a Director in the GSK external drug discovery group in the GSK alliances with Epix Pharmaceuticals, Galapagos Pharmaceuticals, Neurosearch, Chroma Therapeutics and Ranbaxy Drug Discovery Group. Rick was the alliance director for the GSK strategic alliances with Peptidream Inc., Prosensa Therapeutics & the Max Planck Institute.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- Member of the Board and Senior Management Team
John joined Charnwood Molecular as Managing Director in January 2020. John has a wealth of management and leadership experience, having held senior roles in a variety of CRO businesses.
John has held a number of senior leadership roles before joining Charnwood, most recently as Chief Operating Officer at Concept Life Sciences, providing leadership across the Integrated Discovery and Development Services and Analytical Development Services divisions. Prior to this, John was both General Manager and President (Europe) for Envigo and held previous roles as both President and VP (Operations) at Harlan Laboratories.
Qualifications.
John has a bachelor's degree in Environmental Biology and gained his Masters from the University of Cardiff investigating the effects of acid rain on fish populations. John is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology.
Job Titles:
- Director of Biology Operations
Kathy is a highly experienced drug discovery scientist with over 25 years of industrial experience gained at SmithKline Beecham and AstraZeneca. Kathy researches and designs bespoke assays that support client's projects. She has a strong focus on data delivery and assay quality control.
Qualifications.
After gaining a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Bath in 1989, Kathy joined SmithKline Beecham (SKB) as a research scientist, initially in the rheumatoid arthritis therapy area, and soon generated significant experience in disease models. A move to the CNS disease area led to the opportunity for further study and she gained a Masters in Neuropharmacology whilst still working for SKB.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Director, Pam Brown Consulting Ltd
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Founder
Steve Allin co-founded Charnwood Molecular in 1998. Steve was Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader in Organic Chemistry at Loughborough University from 1997 until 2008.
He was Professor of Organic Chemistry at Keele University from 2008-2012, Head of the Department of Chemistry and Forensics at Nottingham Trent University from 2012-2015, Head of the NTU Doctoral School and a member of the University Leadership Team from 2015-2017. In February 2017 Steve moved to Charnwood Molecular to become the Managing Director, providing day-to-day leadership and management during a significant planned growth phase for the company. In 2020, following a significant investment into Charnwood Molecular by Synova Capital, Steve became its CEO.
Qualifications.
Steve graduated from the University of Liverpool with a first class honours degree in Chemistry and Pharmacology, and obtained his PhD from Liverpool in the area of asymmetric synthesis. Steve gained postdoctoral experience with Professor Alan R. Katritzky, FRS, at the Centre for Heterocyclic Compounds, University of Florida.
Job Titles:
- Chief Financial Officer
- Member of the Board and Senior Management Team
Trevor joined Charnwood Molecular as Chief Financial Officer in March 2020. Prior to then, Trevor has focused his career in the Healthcare and Life Sciences sector, holding a number of financial leadership roles in businesses covering a range from high street healthcare, hospital operations, medical device manufacture and distribution, and laboratory services for clinical life science and medical research.
Qualifications.
Having studied Chemistry at University of Leicester and gained a PhD with University of Nottingham in the study of organometallic reactions in low temperature polymer matrices, Trevor shifted focus towards financial management and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young.